Sheila Jackson Lee: “This alone justifies the changes in the bill, which simply allow incarcerated juveniles to go directly to court to have…”

“This alone justifies the changes in the bill, which simply allow incarcerated juveniles to go directly to court to have serious deficiencies in their incarceration, including allegations of assault, corrected. As I said, I thank my colleague, Representative Mary Gay Scanlon. As I work on legislation to achieve more extensive juvenile justice reform, I support the passage of this bill--commonsense, overdue--and ask that my colleagues support this as well. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 961, the ``Justice for Juveniles Act.'' This is a necessary and important bipartisan bill that will save incarcerated young people's lives. The Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security Subcommittee, which I chair, recently held a hearing titled the ``Juvenile Justice Pipeline and the Road Back to Integration.'' During the hearing, we heard testimony from witness after witness who acknowledged the body of scientific research, that has been embraced by experts and the Supreme Court, demonstrating that juveniles do not have the same cognitive and emotional maturity as adults. This bill makes a modest change to the Prison Litigation Reform Act to take into account that the overwhelming majority of juveniles cannot comply with the law's complex grievance procedures. These requirements not only require an understanding of the grievance process, but on a more basic level, require that an incarcerated person be able to read.…”